


and, baby, you know it's obvious

by Jedi_of_Books_and_Snacks



Category: Psycho-Pass
Genre: Almost Kiss, F/M, set before episode 10, trope 101
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-24 02:36:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19714576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jedi_of_Books_and_Snacks/pseuds/Jedi_of_Books_and_Snacks
Summary: When after a notorious killer, Tsunemori and Kogami wind up standing a little too close in order to throw him off.





	and, baby, you know it's obvious

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from ["Sucker"](https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jonasbrothers/sucker.html) by the Jonas Brothers.
> 
> All my thanks to [NuanceGhost](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NuanceGhost/pseuds/NuanceGhost) for looking this over.

The perp had walked out of that run-down shop, where animal cages were filled with cats and dogs and snakes and turtles, and into the brilliant sunny day. His balled-up jacket tapped against his leg as he walked, whistling, leaving behind the beasts who watched silently from behind bars as other men rolled the dead body in plastic. Another man, their source, was comm linked beneath his shirt to the team in exchange for a lesser sentence. He wept in fear. 

They had been tipped off that notorious Kourin Boukaya would be there today, a man with a high enough murder count to make even Masaoka raise his eyebrows. Not that they would be at getting rid of the body for long, Akane thought. She sent an acknowledgment to Ginoza’s commlink for his team to go. They would get there in time to save that other man from his own death, she knew. Reluctantly, she switched off her link to Gino's comm, leaving it in his hands. On the street, Akane and Kogami moved in behind Boukaya and watched him deposit his jacket in the trash, which she noted for evidence. 

Wouldn’t want anyone to know that he had just ruined his suit with another man’s blood. 

The bright day made the staccato of Akane’s footsteps stand out as she followed. The Dominator was warm where it was stowed beneath her jacket and against her back. Next to her, Kogami paced down the crowded street, his steps steady and his thoughts hidden as his eyes clocked everything around them. Part of her wondered what had closed him off; a part of her knew the answer. His head cocked as he let the hum of the crowd pass over him, but the tension in his body said that he was aching for a fight. As though ready for the chase. 

(The clean lines of his suit were at odds with his messy tie and part-open button-down and did not sit in accord with his chaotic hair and the sharpness behind his eyes. That was all right, she thought. She liked his chaotic hair and his sharp eyes. His humanity started in the discord.) 

They rounded the corner into a busy street, one that had opened into a park, once. Now, where people had walked dogs and children had played and the elderly had rested on a sunny day, only a few homeless people slept on the run-down benches on the other side of the rusted, broken chain link fence. At one end of the park was a kiosk, a relic selling soda, water, downloadable papers and some magazines, and candy. 

The perp stopped, looking frustratedly for his wallet. Steps hitched, she paused, calculating what they were going to do to _not_ take out their weapons and start off a panic on a crowded street. 

Without warning, Kogami grabbed her arm and pushed her back up against the nearest wall, trapping her small body with his great height.

Eyes widened and a breath left her at how suddenly close he was. At how she could see the breath coming and going from his lungs, at how she could see the way his neck vanished into his button-down. She focused on the hollow between his collarbones, the loose pull of his tie as it fell between them. The pulse in his neck. The contradictory scent of Spinel cigarettes warred with fresh soap from his shower (her brain braked at the fleeting idea of him, naked and lathered, under the water from the showerhead). His hand lay flat against the building behind her as tall, strong him crowded her. A definitely non-professional blush stained her cheeks. The lines of his neck went up to his jaw, and from there to his ear, sticking out from the fall of his dark hair right above her head. Looking away from Boukaya were his downcast eyes, focused at a point on the sidewalk.

“You’re in the best position to see him,” he said, his voice pitched low. He swallowed, mildly flustered, his Adam’s apple moving slowly up and down. “Tell me when he moves.”

Kogami had to know, he _must_ know, what this looked like, right? Back against the wall, him standing so close to her, as though he had drawn this from a . . . a _romance_. Had he . . . Did he kiss someone like this before? Someone who tangled a hand through his hair? Someone who--

No. Worrying about who he had kissed before was a dark well she knew better than to dive into. Besides, _their job_ was the point, here, yes? Their . . . job. Still, he shifted his weight from one leg to the other, his belt buckle tracing the motion as she became aware of the proximity of his hips. 

Hoping to distract herself, she looked at Boukaya. Eyes scanned the passerby idly above an opened magazine, but instinct said he was on the lookout for someone from the police. Kogami had acted pretty quickly, she admitted, even if it brought them to _this_. 

And she would not, she decided firmly, look at his mouth. Distracted by the warm nearness of his chest, she searched for any work-like topic she might seize onto and asked, “What’s he buying?”

“I’ll bet it’s cigarettes,” he said with an ironic snort. “Just what you need in order to celebrate a felony.” The pull on his mouth was bitter, his tone arch. “Don’t worry about that, Inspector. Why don’t you just unleash me at him and he’ll get his justice.”

The bite in his tone infused his every word. Part of her wanted to touch his face, or his arm, but she did not know how he would take that. “You’re not a dog, Mr. Kogami.”

“The mechanical hound slept but it did not sleep, lived, but did not live, in its kennel.” As he looked down, the grin that split his face was sour. “A paradox from _Fahrenheit 451_.”

“Could a mechanism quote that at me?” With a sigh, her breath ghosted across his neck. Did he . . . was that a slight shiver? “But you aren’t a construct. You have thoughts, preferences. Feelings--” her blush intensified. “A mechanism is not human, no matter how advanced. It can’t like cigarettes and scotch and reading old fashioned print novels like _Fahrenheit 451_.”

“You know, Inspector. . .“ his gaze came to rest on her, making her feel small next to him. Yet, when she unconsciously bit her lip and saw his eyes flick down for a moment to her mouth, the look he gave her made her feel impossibly, incredibly, large. “. . . A part of me almost believes that’s true.”

“What we _think_ , we become.” Was there a hint of blue in his eyes? He was sharp angles and cut lines above her, but his look was gentle. Soft. 

“Trying to make me a better man with Buddha, hmm?” His lips-- _well, so much for that_ \--parted as movement from the kiosk caught her eyes. 

“He’s leaving,” she interrupted. They had a job to do, she reminded herself, as a completely and thoroughly unprofessional stab of regret washed through her as Kogami dropped his arm and stepped back. 

But they were Inspector and Enforcer, right? They had a job. 

(The movement of his hips, the motion of his hands, the way he fought to not watch her . . . in her heart, she knew what else they could be.)

“So,” he wiped the palm of his hand on his pants as he started to walk, “let’s think about catching that bastard, eh, Inspector?”

Professional, yes? Needing to get past this thing, she busied herself in checking her Dominator. See? No thoughts of the slant of his mouth. “So where will he go next?” she asked, falling back to her default as they began walking in the same direction, then adding at his surprised look, “You have the experience to read them, right? Besides, I trust you.”

His dry laugh was tinged with something she couldn’t quite place. “You really,” he said, glancing at her with a shining light in his eyes, “are something else.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come share your thoughts with me on Tumblr: [jediofbooksandsnacks](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/jediofbooksandsnacks)


End file.
